Momentum

32 “But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33 Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come. 34 It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. 35 Therefore stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning— 36 lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. 37 And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.
Mark 13:32-37

“I’ll be back.” — Jesus of Nazareth.

I’m told that in the 1980s, some guy wrote a book called “87 reasons why the rapture will be in 1987”.  The year after that didn’t happen, it was revised, updated and re-published as “88 reasons why the rapture will be in 1988”.

If all the hours that had been wasted in speculating on when Jesus will return could be added up and put to some beneficial use, who know what the church might have done?  But speculation about speculation aside, it’s an example of how rubbish we can be at when it comes to listening to Jesus.

There is a question that Jesus says will not be answered.  He says he doesn’t even know the answer – it is known by the Father alone and he has chosen not to reveal it.  He has deliberately chosen not to reveal it.  It’s not that he hid it in some obscure code in the bible and if you’re clever enough you can figure it out… not unless you’re seriously trying to claim you understand the bible better than Jesus.  It’s a question that he wants us to quit worrying about, because we won’t be able to answer it.  God didn’t mysteriously reveal it to the Mayans.  He didn’t whisper it into Harold Camping’s ear.  He chose not to reveal it.

Instead he told us it would happening.  And he told us how to prepare – and surprisingly he doesn’t recommend a calculator and a Jewish calendar.  He says: “Stay awake.”

Be ready.  Don’t let your guard down.  Quit trying to second-guess God and just live ready for Jesus’ return – because he’s coming back.

He doesn’t ask us to figure out when, or to have the red carpet ready or a cake in the oven.  He just wants us to be carrying on like he’s the master.  Because he is.

So to steal a turn of phrase from the British Humanists, “You don’t know he’s coming back, so quit worrying and carry on serving Jesus.”

He sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”

(Mark 12:41-44, ESV)

What is the reason for your giving? Do you give out of compulsion, guilt or because you feel that you should? If that’s the reason, then you might as well stop, for with God it’s about the heart.

Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

(2 Corinthians 9:7, ESV)

We give to God out of love for him, a small token of our response to him. For everything we have is his and comes from him – so anything we can give is small in relation to what he has given us.

Generosity in giving flows from the motive behind our giving – if you are giving out of love, the amount or the cost doesn’t matter it’s a token of your love and response to the generosity of God. Out of everything God has given us, we are just in awe of his goodness and mercy towards us.

…who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

(Romans 11:35-36, ESV)

Today’s passage reminds us that giving isn’t about show or what others see, it should be kept quiet. Here we see the rich people coming along and putting in large amounts of money in an obvious way to those around, giving to show their wealth. Giving is between you and God, and not about how it appears to others around you. The concern should be about your heart and whether it is acceptable to God.

Does your giving flow out of your love for Jesus?

Mark 12:35-40

Whose Son Is the Christ? by Chris Mountain

35 And as Jesus taught in the temple, he said, “How can the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David? 36 David himself, in the Holy Spirit, declared,

“‘The Lord said to my Lord,
Sit at my right hand,
until I put your enemies under your feet.’

37 David himself calls him Lord. So how is he his son?” And the great throng heard him gladly.

Beware of the Scribes

38 And in his teaching he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and like greetings in the marketplaces 39 and have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, 40 who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.” (ESV)

The part that sticks out for me in that passage especially is about the scribes with their behaviour towards the widows. Nowadays, they would be locked up and it would be local/national news in the newspapers/TV. But in those days, widows had nobody to turn to, they had lost their husbands and the teachers of the law should be people they can trust, right…? Erm, no! But these teachers of the law will be punished most severely says verse 40.

In the first part of the passage, Jesus ‘delighted’ the crowd with his comments while he was teaching in the temple and this would obviously have not gone down well with the Pharisees and the Herodians who weren’t his biggest fans in those days. They have been trying to trip him up and these instances can be seen in Mark chapter 12.

Hope everyone is OK and are having good weeks/end of weeks. Sorry about the delay in getting this out, uni work is extremely demanding at the moment.

God bless,

Chris.

One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”

“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’The second is this: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

“Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbour as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.

(Mark 12.28-34 NIV)

One of my greatest sorrows is to meet up with folk who are so very near the Kingdom but are just on the fringe. They do not realise that what they know is only going to take them part of the way.

This was the problem of the teacher of the law who asked the question, just like the rich young ruler in some ways in that they both knew the right words and asked the right questions

Jesus’ comment to the observation of the teacher about His reply bluntly tells us that knowing the Word is not enough; it is living the Word that makes the difference. Oh, yes! We listen to the message each Sunday and might even read the Word for ourselves but it stops there.

Read what Jesus said in Matthew.7.20-23 and 25.31-46 and ask yourself the question: What does my life and witness show as regards my position regarding the Kingdom – am I there or just near? On  a scale of 1-10 where are you?

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you-unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.
1 Corinthian 15:1-6

Just as here Paul reminded the Corinthians, we each need to be reminded daily of the gospel for it is not only that which brought us to Jesus originally, but also shows us that our hope is in his finished work rather than anything we do. This is the core of our faith in Jesus death – taking upon himself every sin we have committed, those that we are committing currently and all our future sins. These have all been dealt with once and for all on the cross – where Jesus took on the pain and anguish of the punishment we deserve enduring separation from the Father.

That’s not the end though for just as prophesied in the scriptures, on the third day he rose from the dead, showing us that he has conquered not only sin, but death also! Just as Jesus rose from death victorious, so will we to and then spend eternity with him.

Everything hangs on Jesus resurrection for if he wasn’t raised from the dead, what hope do we have of resurrection as Paul writes further on in v17. When Paul wrote this, he says that the witnesses to Jesus resurrection were still alive so his account could be verified first hand – would he have got away with this if it hadn’t happened?

In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots.Peter remembered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!”“Have faith in God,” Jesus answered.“I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.

They arrived again in Jerusalem, and while Jesus was walking in the temple courts, the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders came to him. “By what authority are you doing these things?” they asked. “And who gave you authority to do this?” Jesus replied, “I will ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. John’s baptism—was it from heaven, or from men? Tell me!” They discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From men’…” (They feared the people, for everyone held that John really was a prophet.) So they answered Jesus, “We don’t know.” Jesus said, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”

Authority: The authority which Jesus Christ exercised came from the highest authority of all – God the Father, creator of heaven and earth. Christ’s mandate was to demonstrate the love of God by giving himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. It was also to bring in the Kingdom of God though the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of those who truly believed in him.

In last week’s passage we saw Jesus exercising his authority over people when he forcibly expelled those who were desecrating the temple. This week we see Jesus’ authority over creation when the fig tree he had previously cursed (11.12-15), because it showed no sign of bearing fruit, had withered and died.

In John 14.v14 Jesus says “If you love me, you will obey what I command.” Then following on from this we can sum up the message of John 15 which tells us that to remain in the love of Christ we must obey his commands and his main command in this passage is that we love each other as he has loved us.

So the love of Christ must not only be our personal experience but shown towards others. Our fellowship has many who are suffering, are we loving? Jesus’ great command given just before he returned to heaven was, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations…” Matthew 28.18-19. Our love must extend further than to those around us if we are to be obedient and accept the Lordship of Christ in our lives and live in accordance with his will.

As the hymn says: Trust and obey! For there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey.

Here, surely, is sufficient evidence to make us seek to be obedient to the will of God, to follow His commands. We obey the civil authorities either because we fear the consequences of disobedience or we are assured that the authorities (the laws) are for the common good. Disobedience

[12] On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. [13] And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. [14] And he said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it.

[15] And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. [16] And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. [17] And he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” [18] And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching. [19] And when evening came they went out of the city.

(Mark 11:12-19 ESV)

Suppose I had a heart for drug addicts.  I set up a live-in house to help them beat the addiction.  Somewhere to help them get clean; turn over a new leaf.  And one day I turn up at the house and find the front room is full of pot heads who fund their habit by ripping off the very people the centre was set up to help.

Jesus turns up in the temple – and probably for the second time (cf John 2:13-17) – and lets rip.  This was meant to be the missionary heart of the planet – the place from which God’s self-revelation and message of reconciliation and renewal was to be spread to every corner of the globe.  This was a place for worshippers to come and offer sacrifices and worship the living God.

And it had become a home for rip-off merchants.  A place that was designed for the worship of God had become a place where profit was valued over piety.  A place where you must pay through the nose before you can worship from the heart.

Jesus is enraged:  he is turn-the-tables smash-the-furniture drive-the-scumbags-out furious.

The temple was meant to be there to serve the recovering sin addicts, to help them re-connect with God.  To kick the habit of sin and walk the path of righteousness.

You can’t love someone and not care when they’re being exploited – and Jesus is passionately and whole-heartedly committed to rescuing and transforming sinners; to adopting the lost; to binding up the broken hearted and healing the wounded soul.  And his compassion towards the vulnerable means that he is ruthlessly committed to crushing the obstacles that get between them and God.

Let’s pray that, for those around us who don’t yet trust Jesus, we would be stepping stones, not stumbling blocks.

Now when they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples and said to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately as you enter it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it. If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord has need of it and will send it back here immediately.’” And they went away and found a colt tied at a door outside in the street, and they untied it. And some of those standing there said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” And they told them what Jesus had said, and they let them go. And they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it, and he sat on it. And many spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!”
And he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple. And when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.

Mark 11:1-11 ESV

Here we see Jesus entering Jerusalem as a king would – greeted by crowds rejoicing and waving palm leaves and laying their cloaks down before him – a suitable and expected welcome for a king. There’s something different though, this king isn’t riding a horse – no he’s riding on a small donkey. In this Jesus fulfills the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9:

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your king is coming to you;
righteous and having salvation is he,
humble and mounted on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

Zechariah 9:9 ESV

Here we something of the nature of Jesus’ kingship – although he is the ultimate sovereign, King of kings and Lord of lords, he comes in total humility and submission as he heads towards Jerusalem, knowing what lies ahead, preparing to give his life in our place on the cross.

As Tim Keller writes: “In Jesus we find infinite majesty yet complete humility, perfect justice yet boundless grace, absolute sovereignty yet utter submission, all sufficiency in himself yet entire trust and dependence on God”.

;

    And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” And they said to him, “We are able.” And Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized, but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.” And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John. And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
And they came to Jericho. And as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” And Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart. Get up; he is calling you.” And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. And Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” And the blind man said to him, “Rabbi, let me recover my sight.” And Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way.

(Mark 10:35-52 ESV)

The two disciples asked Jesus if they could be on his side of him on the throne. This obviously took some guts for them to ask Jesus (not that they were right to do this). Jesus could have got angry…we know how Jesus got angry in the temple (tables overturning etc) but he didn’t, he gently told them that it was not his decision to make. The disciples were angry/indignant (probably because they didn’t ask first!) with the two disciples but Jesus tells them that whoever wants the most will be the servant of the others. Even after spending all that time with Jesus, the disciples were still not ‘clued’ in!

It’s a difficult time at the moment for various members of the church but we just need to remember that God knows the plans he has for us all.

Over and out.